Galapagos. Ecuador, part 3

My goals for the Ecuador before I left Anchorage were 1) see a Whale Shark, 2) see Hammerheads, 3) see a Manta Ray and 4) don't get mugged. Once I left Quito for the first time, I knew what it would take to make sure I met goal #4 when I went back there after Galapagos. It was goals 1 thru 3 that were the big question marks. Everyone was saying before we left, "No. This isn't the right season for whale sharks. Don't get your hopes up." Well, the Captain's Log on the Aggressor website said that the group they had in November saw whale sharks, so my hopes were up.

When we arrived in San Cristobal, we were met by our Aggressor crew, led by Solon Intriago. They took our gear away on the back of a tiny pickup truck, then piled all of us onto a bus. Solon spoke the best English on the crew, so I knew right away he was pretty much going to be the main man. After getting out and seeing our boat, getting our gear organized, etc., we were shuffled back to shore for our first shore excursion. We were supposed to do our check out dive that day, but due to... something (coast guard documentation? dead battery? I don't know.) kept us from getting out of the harbor. No problem. There's a sea lion colony right in the harbor, and they let us get very close to get our pictures. Noisy, smelly, but very cute. Especially the pups! We followed that with a guided trip through a still unfinished tourism center. Not much to see here. Let's go diving!!

Dive Day 1: Mosquera Island

A tiny little sliver of land, Mosquera Island is located in the passage between Baltra Island and Seymour Island. Our checkout dive was on the leeward side of the island, away from the current. Checkout dives are used basically to make sure you're properly weighted and the rest of your gear is copacetic. 25 feet for 22 minutes - piece of cake. Saw some garden eels, stingrays, and some very playfull sea lions. A very nice intro to Galapagos diving. Dives 2 and 3 were on the opposite side of Mosquera. Nothing to see here but loads of tropical fish!

As part of our week, we had land excursions as well as dives. After diving as Mosquera, we went up to Seymour Island and went for a hike. The wildlife on land, over the course of the week, would be almost as rewarding as what we saw underwater. Almost. Seymour gave us an up close look at dozens of nesting Frigates, a few Blue Footed Boobys, the biggest iguanas I've ever seen, marine iguanas, and lots more sea lions. As the week went on, it was obvious to all that the shops in the Galapagos were more than happy to take full advantage of the Blue Footed Booby's name. Tee shirts with every Booby joke you could imagine were proudly on display for every jokester out there who was to come along and fork over 20 bucks for a shirt that said "I love Boobys" on it. I figure if I wore a shirt like that to a party, it'd be funny once. For a few seconds. Then I'd have to explain what a Blue Footed Booby is and why they call it a Booby at LEAST a dozen times. Not worth the 5 second laugh.

Dive Day 2: Wolf Island

Here's where things get REALLY interesting! After boating all night from Mosquera, we arrived at Wolf Island, one of the two northernmost islands in the Archipelago. We'd be spending the next three days here and at Darwin Island - 11 dives in all. The currents at Wolf were the strongest I've ever dove in. We'd have to drop down, kicking the whole way, then grab onto a rock. Pretty much felt like I was in a wind tunnel with my legs flapping in the wind behind me. But because of the current, we didn't have to look for the sealife. The current brought the sealife to us!

The waters were pretty rough and as we were coming back from our second dive, I started to feel it. It came on quick and when I got back onto the Aggressor, I went straight to the toilet and hurled. I hadn't been seasick to the point of puking since a swim team trip to Cordova my freshman year of high school. Waters so rough in Prince William Sound that pretty much everyone on the ferry was taking turns in the stalls. I distinctly remember Todd Rosen running in right after I had deposited, yelling "get outta the way!!". But I digress. I wasn't happy, needless to say. I went ahead and gave the third dive of the day a shot, and felt great through the whole thing. Right up until I got to the surface. Once they got me onto the skiff, I was over the side. Damn. Oh, well. It is what it is. Teresa was kind enough to give me one of her seasickness patches, but that takes a few hours to kick in. I had to take some Dramamine and skip the last dive of the day. Well, the day wasn't a total loss. During our first day at Wolf, we saw Hammerhead Sharks (goal #2 taken care of), Galapagos Sharks (similar to a Mako), schooling Spotted Eagle Rays, Moray Eels, lots of fish I'd never seen before, and some very curious fish with a huge underbite and a yellow vertical stripe on it's back. Whatever it was, it came right up to me without a lick of fear. Nice.

Tomorrow, Darwins Island and the search for the Tiburon Ballena... Señor Grandé... the coveted Whale Shark.

And for the record, I can't take credit for any of the underwater photos.